RE: [MPD-5D] traffic light problems. . . and a question

Ms. Lyttleton, Thank you for being involved and reporting this to both 311 and 911. After reviewing the data your calls to 911 and 311 were handled

Message 1 of 6
, Mar 8 1:13 PM

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Ms. Lyttleton ,

Thank you for being involved and reporting
this to both 311 and 911. After reviewing the data your calls to 911 and 311
were handled appropriately and your concerns resulted in immediate contact with
DDOT regarding traffic light outage. MPD unit 5015 also notified the 911
dispatcher over the radio that there was a light outage at this intersection
and the dispatcher also reported this to EMA and DDOT. I apologize that the
response time was slow and I will make sure to forward this to DDOT.

Elizabeth Lyttleton ,
I will have the unified communications director review the calls and dispatch
times for this situation. Then we can ascertain when the calls came in and who
was dispatched. Generally DDOT handles these types of calls and reprograms
timing of the lights at the intersections that have malfunctioned. We will also
review when and if any MPD members where notified as well.
Commander Lamar D. Greene

When I
came home from picking up my daughter from school on Friday early
afternoon , I found that the traffic
lights at the corner of R St NE
and
Lincoln Road NE
were having serious problems. The lights facing both north
and and south on Lincoln Road
were OFF. Completely off. Not blinking
yellow. . . just totally dark. At the same time ,
the traffic lights facing
east and west on R St
were working just fine.

If you stop and try to visualize this situation ,
you'll realize it was
EXTREMELY dangerous. People who were familiar with the area
, um ,
mostly
slowed down while going through the intersection on
Lincoln Road . But their
light was out , and they did not know
that the people traveling east/west had
a functioning light. Some of them just tried to blow through. Some tried
to treat it as a four way stop. People unfamiliar with the area didn't seem
to realize that the blank light was actually supposed to be working.

So. When I saw this situation upon coming home ,
I called 311. I explained
the situation. They said they would notify DDOT ,
MPD , etc. At 2:10
, after
watching multiple near-accidents , in
this intersection , I decided to call
911. (as an aside: I had to call twice ,
as the call was cut off within 2
seconds during the first call.) I explained the situation again
, explained
that I had called 311 , and explained
that the elementary school one block
away was going to be letting out in an hour ,
and that I had seen several
near accidents , and that someone
needed to come out. I also twittered DDOT.
Again , nothing happened.

Just before 3pm , my neighbor and I
went out to the intersection in
anticipation of school letting out ,
in an attempt to ensure that the kids
leaving school did not get hurt trying to pass through the intersection. We
stopped traffic on Lincoln Road
every time that the R St facing lights
turned green. Most people started off confused ,
but once we got them to
look up at the lights and see that the R St lights were working
, they were ,
most of them at least , thankful.

At 3:25 , most of the kids had left
school and gotten through the
intersection. But my neighbor and I were still out there. Now
, of course ,
there was more traffic , in
anticipation of rush hour. It was getting fairly
dicey. (As another aside: at some point an MPD patrol car came through the
intersection heading north on Lincoln
Rd. We thought the cavalry had
arrived. But they just kept going. That was disheartening ,
to say the
least , given that they could clearly
see the light was out and two
'civilians' were directing traffic.) I called 911 again. I explained the
situation again , and that I had
called 311 and 911 already , to no
avail.
And that my neighbor and I were trying to safely direct traffic through the
intersection. And that we needed help. The operator this time transferred
me to , I think ,
emergency operations. Finally , about
20 minutes later , two
traffic operations guys showed up to guide traffic through the intersection.
My neighbor and I left. I am not sure how long the traffic ops guys were
out there , or when the light were
fixed , or what happened. I was just
happy
that nobody had been killed trying to drive or walk through that
intersection during the 2+ hours that there had been no official response to
the problem.

So , here is my question: Why did it
take so long to get a response??? What
else could we have done to get a faster response??? This was a VERY
dangerous situation that needed immediate attention ,
and attention was over
two hours in coming.

Thanks for any response you can provide.

--
Elizabeth

Elizabeth Lyttleton

Ms. Quintana, I appreciate that you followed up with my questions so thoroughly. Best, Elizabeth On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 4:13 PM, Quintana, Janice (OUC)

Thank you for being involved and reporting
this to both 311 and 911. After reviewing the data your calls to 911 and 311
were handled appropriately and your concerns resulted in immediate contact with
DDOT regarding traffic light outage. MPD unit 5015 also notified the 911
dispatcher over the radio that there was a light outage at this intersection
and the dispatcher also reported this to EMA and DDOT. I apologize that the
response time was slow and I will make sure to forward this to DDOT.

Elizabeth Lyttleton,
I will have the unified communications director review the calls and dispatch
times for this situation. Then we can ascertain when the calls came in and who
was dispatched. Generally DDOT handles these types of calls and reprograms
timing of the lights at the intersections that have malfunctioned. We will also
review when and if any MPD members where notified as well.
Commander Lamar D. Greene

When I
came home from picking up my daughter from school on Friday early
afternoon, I found that the traffic
lights at the corner of R St NE
and
Lincoln Road NE
were having serious problems. The lights facing both north
and and south on Lincoln Road
were OFF. Completely off. Not blinking
yellow. . . just totally dark. At the same time,
the traffic lights facing
east and west on R St
were working just fine.

If you stop and try to visualize this situation,
you'll realize it was
EXTREMELY dangerous. People who were familiar with the area, um,
mostly
slowed down while going through the intersection on Lincoln Road. But their
light was out, and they did not know
that the people traveling east/west had
a functioning light. Some of them just tried to blow through. Some tried
to treat it as a four way stop. People unfamiliar with the area didn't seem
to realize that the blank light was actually supposed to be working.

So. When I saw this situation upon coming home,
I called 311. I explained
the situation. They said they would notify DDOT,
MPD, etc. At 2:10, after
watching multiple near-accidents, in
this intersection, I decided to call
911. (as an aside: I had to call twice,
as the call was cut off within 2
seconds during the first call.) I explained the situation again, explained
that I had called 311, and explained
that the elementary school one block
away was going to be letting out in an hour,
and that I had seen several
near accidents, and that someone
needed to come out. I also twittered DDOT.
Again, nothing happened.

Just before 3pm, my neighbor and I
went out to the intersection in
anticipation of school letting out,
in an attempt to ensure that the kids
leaving school did not get hurt trying to pass through the intersection. We
stopped traffic on Lincoln Road
every time that the R St facing lights
turned green. Most people started off confused,
but once we got them to
look up at the lights and see that the R St lights were working, they were,
most of them at least, thankful.

At 3:25, most of the kids had left
school and gotten through the
intersection. But my neighbor and I were still out there. Now, of course,
there was more traffic, in
anticipation of rush hour. It was getting fairly
dicey. (As another aside: at some point an MPD patrol car came through the
intersection heading north on Lincoln
Rd. We thought the cavalry had
arrived. But they just kept going. That was disheartening,
to say the
least, given that they could clearly
see the light was out and two
'civilians' were directing traffic.) I called 911 again. I explained the
situation again, and that I had
called 311 and 911 already, to no
avail.
And that my neighbor and I were trying to safely direct traffic through the
intersection. And that we needed help. The operator this time transferred
me to, I think,
emergency operations. Finally, about
20 minutes later, two
traffic operations guys showed up to guide traffic through the intersection.
My neighbor and I left. I am not sure how long the traffic ops guys were
out there, or when the light were
fixed, or what happened. I was just
happy
that nobody had been killed trying to drive or walk through that
intersection during the 2+ hours that there had been no official response to
the problem.

So, here is my question: Why did it
take so long to get a response??? What
else could we have done to get a faster response??? This was a VERY
dangerous situation that needed immediate attention,
and attention was over
two hours in coming.